Pushing My Limits

Most of the time I stay comfortably inside of my comfort zone, easily within my limits.  It is safe, it is comfortable, it is familiar.  It is boring.

I learn most about myself when I stretch my limits.  When I commit to doing something I am not sure I can do.  Over a year ago, I committed to flying solo to Frankfurt Germany and taking a train from there to Stuttgart to meet Jay.  When I made the plans, I was not sure I could do it.  I was not moving well, not sure what was wrong, but I knew something was not right.  It is one of the few times I bought trip cancellation insurance when I booked the trip.  Then I went through last May, June and July.  The doctors asked me what my goal was, and I kept saying in August I am flying to Germany for two weeks vacation - my goal is to be able to do that.  There were times when I doubted I would make it, or how comfortably I would make it, but I pushed on.  Stretching my limits, leaving my comfort zone.  Even in the best of times, flying to a country where I don't speak a word of the language, finding my way to the hotel is a stretch - I did it in Athens a few years ago.  I did it last summer.

The picture above is in the train station in Frankfurt, waiting for my train to Stuttgart.  I made it, I was so happy - I may have shed a tear.

This was not the first time I have stretched my limits, it won't be the last.